I was putting off putting the final touches on the final sample chapter (how's that for abuse of the words "putting" and "final") of the peplum book I've been working on and hope to peddle off to some publisher somewhere in 2007, and distracted myself by doing some research for an upcoming review of the first of the Kommisar X Eurospy films, Kiss Kiss Kill Kill (aka Hunters of the Unknown), when i cam across this:

Kommissar X DVD set

Anyone know anything about it? Looks like it's coming out via Image/Retromedia. Is there going to be any reason I should upgrade from my old Something Weird prints? These are some of my absolute favorite spy films, and I'd love to have versions with better picture quality.

It looks good to me (well, I think the covers a little dubious). If the Something Weird discs (we are talking discs?) aren't available, then these are the way to go (unless there's better overseas). The set's listed as full screen, anyone know if 1.33:1 is the OAR? The audio is listed as english, but I guess that's not a big deal; were all the players german? If not then the german soundtrack is as much a dub as the english. Given the price I'll probably take the risk.

I had Something Weird VHS that got converted to DVD-R, so the quality is OK but not pristine. At least one fo the movies, Kiss Kiss, Kill Kill is partially letterboxed on the Something Weird tape, but I don't know how that reflects the original aspect ratio of the movies.

The original dialog was the usual patchwork of Italian German, English (Brad Harris!), and probably some Spanish and who knows what else thrown in. Dubbing never really bothers me on titles like this.

"Death is nimble", "Kiss Kiss, Kill Kill" and "So darling, so deadly" were all shot in Ultrascope which means 2,35:1. But as the box isn't released yet I don't care too much about the full screen listing at amazon.

The technical specs at Image list the aspect ratio at 1.33:1. Not so good, but there don't seem to be any other alternatives... Once it's out we'll know for sure.

From Retromedia head honcho Fred Olen Ray, via their messageboard:

"Frankly, I was against putting these out from the start as they were from US film elements, which means full-frame editions... but I couldn't find any source for them here and figured what the hell, maybe someone would want to see them... so we put three of them together in one package.

I'd love to see them in a pristine edition, but I can't hold my breath quite that long.... they are new transfers, but from US film prints."

From the sound of things, I would assume they're from 16mm tv prints.